Cure Together - Open Source Health Research wellness site

New chronic illness link at left here at Sparkling With Crystals. I'm making hay while the sun shines (and burns us up--forecast is for 97o today) and before I give out, I want to share this with you.

Cure Together - Open Source Health Research is a ten-plus year old organization. It has a number of offerings for chronic illness folks, participant reported information, and a rather stellar staff.

I'm looking forward to fully exploring the areas I've scanned through. In a Twitter message, @accarmichael of Cure Together explained that information comes from members. That disclaimer is at the bottom of the pages along with the copyright information. Would that everyone would be so upfront about their sources! Big plus for Cure Together, to me.

I value anecdotal information, frankly, provided it's not part of an advertisement for a product or cure. I see good things about the member-provided information at Cure Together. The homepage lists the number of participants at more than 3,000. Seems to be a well to draw from and I'm encouraged.

It has 18 gajillion things for people to track for themselves such as various medications, exercise, weight, caloric intake, and many dozens more categories.

I'll share things from Cure Together as I find them. Check them out when you can in the meantime!



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

"Of which vertu engendred is the flour" or Do You Have What it Takes?

" Healing takes patience, persistence, and perseverance. Do you have what it takes? If you said *no* then you'll stay exactly where you are."
Sue Ingebretson, from Twitter

True words. I needed encouragement this morning. Just one of those down, crap-happens days but ta-da! Pleasant, positive phrase popped precipitously preaching patience, persistence, plus perseverance! Aha! Accept, all alliterative ants! XD

I'm in the midst of a combination Meniere's/Migraine attack. Any minute now, gray matter will explode from the sides of my head through my ears, I just know it. The Chinese gongs are sounding nearly continuously and the tinnitus is absolutely screaming. Hearing is going up and down, up and down. The nerves in my head have become sore to the touch now and even smiling hurts.

BUT I'm really getting pumped about the possibility of someday going back to school. My dream was to be a university English teacher. I had been admitted to grad school, had my course of study all planned out--my emphasis was going to be Chaucer with a sub-specialty in linguistics. But, see, I got this job in New Orleans and ....well...didn't go to grad school.

My full-time job now is getting well. Both of my disabling conditions are "triggered" conditions which mean they're rather unpredictable. And I have very little other than patience, persistence, and perseverance--but I do have them.

Heck, maybe a pilgrimage would help--enlist the aid of a "blisful martir" for to "holpen" this pilgrim. I've followed another genealogist's work back a few centuries and if his work is accurate, then Chaucer's wife Philipa de Roet's sister Kathryn Swynford (who was John of Gaunt's third wife) is a direct ancestor on my mother's side, through John and Kathryn's daughter Joan de Beaufort, through the Nevilles down to George Stanley who married Joan, 9th Baroness LeStrange (in her own right). Their daughter Mary Stanley married John Hardy about whom I'm writing a novel of historical fiction .

Anyhow, I need a nice Saint as patron for my wellness efforts. Job's open--accepting suggestions now. :D


Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury
"...Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke..."
Geoffrey Chaucer



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Sharethis: 'You'll try anything,' says cancer patient - EarthLink - Health News

If nothing else convinces you that we poor folk need trustworthy guidance in dealing with serious illness, these two articles will.

In this country, people have the right to participate in treatment choices. But, as they teach you in first aid and first responders training, people reach a point when they no longer are able to make sound, rational choices regarding their conditions.

My father reached that point. He and my mother had been through so much with his metastasized prostate cancer, so much pain, so much dreadful treatment, so much sickness, so much much, that all they had left was desperation. Mom was his primary care giver, and they had believed the surgeon who operated on him 18 years earlier who said, "You'll die from something else, Rudy. You won't die from this cancer."

When the hospice nurse told my mother that my father had gone, my mother said, "What?" Between two of them, two nurses had been there for nearly 24 hours. My father had released his last breath some minutes before, the nurse had steadily checked for heartbeat with her stethoscope, yet my mother was in such bad shape that all she could say was, "What?"

All the doctors agreed that he had fared far better than any other patient than any they had treated. His surgeon wrote about his management of my father's case for a publication. To a one they all told him, "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it."

There has GOT TO BE A WAY to integrate what we know now, the miracles of modern Western medicine--which did treat my father successfully with hormone courses three times and radiation at the end--with what we know now about supportive care and healthy completing treatments.

My father breathed clean air and drank clean country water, ate my mother's marvelous organic food, rested and exercised on their farm, and love and played with his grandchildren who adored him right back. He and I spent time researching the drugs he was being treated with, I kept up with his OTC meds and such, and as a family we were united in working with his squamous cell skin cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure as well.

He lived 18 years and 6 months after his diagnosis. He had surgery, 3 courses of hormone treatment, radiation for palliative purposes, good food, the love of his family, and died peacefully having been relieved of his pain by God 3 weeks beforehand. True--my mother came screaming up the stairs one day near the end hollering, "Your father's been cured! He's been cured!" His pain was gone, he felt strength enough to move his arms and legs, and they thought the cancer was gone. It was a different gift from God than cure as it turned out, but they took it and we all gave thanks! He had 3 good weeks.

He had held so tightly to the dream that he might be cured that he was taking physical therapy treatments even after the doctor released him. His last session was exactly one week before he died.

If I ever get my way, clinics will someday have a staff of health care providers all with only one thought: integrating the astronomical amount of knowledge available to mankind to provide patients with not only the best treatment--which is subjective, as the second article below illustrates--but with the best of both Eastern, Western, and belief system advice.

And love. There must be much, much love.

Someday. Someday.

Patients need guidance
'You'll try anything,' says cancer patient - EarthLink - Health News http://shar.es/WIo7
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Patient choices
'A sad case': She chose herbals over surgery - EarthLink - Health News http://shar.es/WIWG
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Out There: I am Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer

It appears there is a 13th, generally unused astrological sun sign called Ophiuchus. It is generally defined as falling somewhere between November 29th and December 17th of a year. I found it when I was reading Love is in the Earth: The LIITE Fantastic and Last Testament by Melody, (c) 2007 by Earth-Love Publishing House. [At once cloyingly sentimental and egg-headed, it's not a terrifically practical book but it does keep some useful crystal information at hand such as the chemical formulas (good for figuring out which rocks have a good chance of working well together) as well as the Mohs hardness scale for more than 1,300 rocks, minerals, and other things that generally fall under the title of 'crystal'. Unfortunate that the name of the book is misspelled on its own title page but oh well...]

I was born on December 14th, making me not a Sagittarius but an Ophiuchus, by strict sun-sign reading.

Ophiuchus is the Serpent Bearer, the doctor. And true to my nature, medicine is a true love for me. Western medicine holds no charm but completing and alternative medicine traditions do. My first foray into studying completing therapies came about when I wrote a research paper for my sophomore high school English class. My topic? Honey!

I've gotten a parans fixed star reading to integrate into all this too. According to the parans reading, my rising heliacal star is Antares, the Heart of the Scorpion. Not surprising since my Sagittarius Sun is virtually unaspected (being trine only Uranus and that's it). My most aspected Light is my Scorpio Moon and it's my second most aspected planet with Pluto being first in the queue.

Hopefully I'll be able to integrate a couple of astrological readings done for me into a future column. Edgar Cayce considered astrological readings as a snapshot of a person's integral physical and spiritual nature as identified by heavenly body positions at the moment they were born.

What all that means is it's probably not learned behaviour that up to now, I've delved straight into deep, intense relationships, not passing "Go" or collecting $200 or even becoming friends first (my ex-husband began discussing marriage two days after we met and I was there--he and I share many chart similarities), and have made my most profound progress not through reflection or sharing with others, but through life and death. Transpersonal psychology, depth psychology, that's what I want to do.

The stars and planets don't cause me to be the way I am. They provide a way to identify and analyse personality and physical aspects in an understandable way. They'll give me a way to explain to analysands why one workaround might get faster and better results than another. Not likely that they'll care what their heliacal rising or setting stars are or which planet is aspected to the what in the where on their birth charts. All this will be useful to me mostly.

Three steps forward, two steps back...drinking colorless apophyllite, blue aquamarine, and rutilated quartz-charged water right now. I'm about ready to go back to the neurotologist about this Meniere's. I have spent a year working like a dog to see if I could solve my vestibular system problems through completing treatments but haven't made enough progress on that front to count, really. Keeping my energy balanced and using rose quartz both help with vertigo attacks but nothing has touched the disequilibrium that persists for weeks after vertigo attacks. I'm on the verge of needing a walker (the vestibular rehab therapists that I've seen in the last two years think I do), frequently I can't keep my balance sitting upright in bed even, and walking when I'm disequilibriated wracks my shot nerves. This is no kind of life.

What I've learned in the last year is that an integration of what we know now with what we know now is the key to health success. Both Libchik and Aikichik-sensei (Shodan as of yesterday!!) agreed this past week that in some ways, I am remarkably better now than I was two years ago. I owe much to the Crystal Healer's advice and the professional astrologers who've patiently answered my intense questions, the amazing books I've read on Jungian dream analysis and planet delineations, and the personal work I've done on my own ideals and direction.

Although I spent some years as a W-2 wage earner, mostly I've been self-employed in my money earnings. If I can ever get disequilibrium resolved, and can continue the good progress on the Migraine front, maybe I'll be able to rejoin my beloved self-employed. I'll have to find new route out for intestinal gas than through my mind (read: brain farts short-circuit my cognitive processes), but hey! I love a good challenge if I can figure out what it is. XD

"Life goes on within you and without you", as George Harrison put it in Within You, Without You. It'll go on for me whether in this life or the next. I certainly would rather be of service than to require being served, that's for sure. My birth chart is so others-oriented, I didn't seriously consider further pursuing who I was more than being an MBTI "ENTJ" until I was faced with the horrific spiritual attack that has now divided my life into "before July 2007" and "after July 2007", but the rest of who I am in fact will have to wait for a future column.

Time to scoot. The sun will come up soon and this nocturnal scorpion will be retreating underneath rocks shortly to wait out the burning sun until night falls again.

Sharethis: Scientists find bacterial zoo thrives in our skin - EarthLink - Top News

All I can say is yuck.

There's an age-old underarm grooming treatment of sponging off with witch hazel. Commercial witch hazel contains some alcohol so at least it probably killed some of the rain forest critters.

Underarm rain forest
Scientists find bacterial zoo thrives in our skin - EarthLink - Top News http://shar.es/Xb9o
Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.

Wonder what Meniere's Syndrome determination is?

If you EVER think Meniere's Syndrome isn't tough, just read this thread from www.menieres.org

David.

If I wore a hat (and I think men who wear hats are sexy, BTW), I'd take it off to you, David.


On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

National Headache Awareness Week 2009

Can't anyone say he or she isn't touched by headaches and/or Migraine--if you're reading this column, you're reading writing written by a Migraineur! Me! :)

Click on the link below that leads to information and awareness for National Headache Awareness Week, June 7-13, 2009. Link to the National Headache Foundation on left too.

Headaches.org National Headache Awareness Week
National Headache Awareness Week 2009 http://shar.es/04UA
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Deep in transpersonality

"You know nothing of hell."
Koehler, POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl

May has been a rough month. It has taken a lot of out of me and I couldn't have told ahead of time that it was going to be so difficult. May marked one year since my father died here at home.

Fairly easy Migraine month, though. I've now gone for three complete weeks without a Migraine attack of any sort. Three-week-long prodrome still going so whenever the attack finally progresses, it's liable to be a huge one. Quite pleased that I've needed no meds other than daily preventatives in a nice long time. Clear quartz and dioptase-charged water, that's the secret.

Not a good month for Meniere's. One minor attack after another and one major attack, first major one since February. My ears feel like they're about to explode right now. My hearing in my right Meniere's ear is down. My mother had to raise her voice yesterday just to talk to me.

If I can ever get all my situations calmed down, I do want to go back to school to study transpersonal psychology. It's a complex subject by itself, psychology is, without the addition of things like shamanistic healing techniques, astrology, and in-depth dream interpretation. Transpersonal psychology is a form of depth psychology. Going into the deep places of the human psyche to heal the most frightening, disturbing, and supra-personal topics and doing it through transpersonal techniques that take a person outside themselves and into the extra-dimensional realms--I cannot wait. Soul retrieval, hypnosis, energy work--all right down my alley.

Seems I'm suited for it, if my birth chart with the new time is correct. It appears I've got the chart of a witch--or midwife of the soul, as it has also been put to me.

I've figured out a way to do a bit of studying. I can use my laptop in bed and when vertigo hits, I slide it to the edge of the bed and stretch out. Yeah, I've spent a lot of time horizontal this month. I'm vertical right now borrowing Libchik's computadora whilst I wait for mine to come back from warranty work. Feels good to be upright.

Got several things in my head that I want to write about: new information about the role of estrogen in brain's processing of hearing (which MUST include the study about the relationship between cochlear dysfunction and Migraine which is also affected by estrogen and hormones), something that struck me about the relationship between Neptune birth chart aspects and "permeable" people like me related to body energy leakage (I cannot afford to shed energy under any circumstance that I don't initiate), and how birth chart analysis seems to provide clues to help distinguish between learned behaviour and innate, inborn character traits. Learned behaviour is more difficult to modify than inborn characteristics, and any help in sorting it out would give a psychologist an edge in treatments.

Before I write any of those columns, though, I'm going to write about what I'm reading right now: The Hades Moon by Judy Hall, (c) 1998 Samuel Weiser Inc, Box 612, York Beach, ME 03910-0612. Judy Hall is a UK karmic astrologer/astronomer (Master's Degree level) who has counseled people who have a particular chart aspect connecting their Moon and Pluto placements. It seems that we Hades Moon sorts have unique problems such as energy vampirism and other such issues from the depths of hell that transpersonal work appears to succeed especially well in adjusting. My Scorpio Moon sextile Pluto in Virgo is what Judy Hall calls "doubly Hades Moon". So, to everyone I've put through hell since the day I was born, I apologize. Now I'm getting a handle on it. Glad my belief system contains a method for addressing wrongs. Hope you all begin to feel better soon. :)

Right now, I've got to get horizontal again. The good vertical feeling has worn off.

Feels good to be feeling again. Speaking of feeling--did I mention that some people with Hades Moons have a higher libido than others? Add that to my current 20% increase due to Migraine and...dadgum...gotta find a way to solve this...

With my Venus in Aquarius squared Neptune in Scorpio plus my doubly Hades Scorpio Moon, it takes an extremely strong, handsome man on the darkest side of the Force to achieve perfection in my eyes. But, he'd have to prove trustworthy first, and I don't believe that's possible for any man. Love you guys, but you'll tell a girl anything. Especially you dark-side and handsome types. :-*



On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Simul-posting - Cops: AOL meeting leads to fatal stabbing -- Newsday.com

All I have to say is that you do not know anyone you don't know.

God love this poor woman. Praying for her soul, her family and friends.

cyberstalking
Cops: AOL meeting leads to fatal stabbing -- Newsday.com http://www.newsday.com/technology/ny-nyjilt1512768863may14,0,579010...
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Little Break

Simul-posting: clocking out for a few day's break. Week from Saturday will be one year since Dad died. See y'all soon--love you all.

Thanks for reading.




On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

FOXNews.com - 6 Reasons Your Headache Treatment Is Failing You - Headaches | Migraine | Treatments

Excellent article with extremely useful and pertinent observations.

On the Plus Side:
+ Sensitivity of the Migraine brain first sentence of second paragraph. Most underestimated aspect of Migraine Disease in my opinion.
+ Contains the most recent figure on number of people in the U.S. with Migraine.
+ Does NOT repeat the fallacy that any specific prescription drug or genre of prescription drugs is more effective at treating attacks than another.

On the Negative Side:
- States that delaying medicating a Migraine attack might cause it to recur. My ex-hired famous Dr. Breathtakingly Arrogant--who is, in fact, a migraine-turned-headache-research scientist primarily--disseminates that Migraine attacks continue during the time all drugs are actively working in a body and simply re-emerge when the drugs wear off if the attack has not ended by itself. Easy to mistake a 3-day attack for a "medication overuse" or "rebound" unless you keep in mind that no drug is currently approved by the FDA to stop a Migraine attack and only 4 drugs are currently FDA-approved for Migraine prevention.
- First paragraph marginalizes the seriousness of Migraine Disease. More to come when I have more spoons to write a column about the latest information about permanent effects of Migraine Disease.

FOXNews.com - 6 Reasons Your Headache Treatment Is Failing You - Headaches | Migraine | Treatments http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517483,00.html
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Incandescently Angry

"Nothing you put on the internet is private."
Unknown

"She died after a long battle with doctors."
Obituary


I wasn't going to complain. I said to myself, "You should just be quiet and take it like a man! Nothing you say or do will help. Patients are virtually helpless in the face of determined, oppressive doctors and you of all people should know that by now."

Then my goat got up and walked out.

Dr. Breathtakingly Arrogant has struck again.

I'm trying to make an appointment with a new migraine doctor. I had already spoken to this doctor personally and he agreed to see me, telling me to call his office to make an appointment. His nurse called me back a few minutes ago.

First, she woke me up. I'm a pleasant morning person, rarely wake up in a bad mood. How long it takes the world to assault me varies but I wake up feeling positive and optimistic. She, it became apparent, is not a morning person.

Second, she began grilling me about making this appointment. No need to relate the details. You all know how doctor's offices can be.

Third, she scolded me about the medicines prescribed by Dr. Breathtakingly Arrogant. Where on earth did she get that? When I left the message asking to make the appointment, I left no such information. What difference would it make to her anyway, since all I wanted was to make the appointment and the doctor himself had already agreed to see me??

Then, it dawned on me. She was looking at something, somewhere, that contained my former chart information.

I haven't written about my problems with Dr. Breathtakingly Arrogant. The problems were numerous and serious, unlike any I have ever encountered, and included Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) violations. The most troubling from my perspective was the false information he submitted to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in connection with my disability retirement application. When OPM asked for test records to substantiate the outrageous statements he had made and for the names of physicians he would have referred me to for further treatment of these non-existent conditions, he quietly removed all references to everything except the Migraine treatment he provided and then Meniere's Syndrome referral he made and submitted the new records without a word.

When it was time to find another doctor, my most Excellent Assistant Offspring, who had fielded all these problems and dealt with his office and OPM under POA from me, asked for my records. His office refused to give them up saying they would only submit them directly to the new doctor. Part of HIPPA clarifies that patients own their records, not the health care providers. My daughter had to ONCE AGAIN go through the clinic's Patient Relations Department for the umpteenth time in order to get my records. What he gave me, of course, is only part of the story but not to worry. The Sparkling Assistant Offspring glows brighter than I do and has all the bogus OPM submissions as well as everything else he has submitted to them--sorted, filed, and categorized like the librarian she is--so I feel like I have a complete file.

If this doctor has made yet another unauthorized disclosure of my information by any route, and if it contained especially bogus information, I believe I may consider filing a HIPPA complaint with the Office of Civil Rights.

I have been seeing doctors for many, many years. I've had migraine since I was 5 years old. I've got thyroid disease (eleven thyroid nodules), mitral valve prolapse, asthma--the list goes on. I know doctors and how to work with them. The most important issue is empowerment. Once a doctor sees that he isn't working with a limp dishrag but instead an educated patient intent on getting well, then real progress can be made. My hearing has been restored by careful work with the excellent neurotologist I see. Progress can be made.

I blog for several reasons and one of them is for Migraine Advocacy. Why, why do my Advocacy efforts have to include how my support system and I solve personal bad experiences? Obviously, that's the way God wants it.

I'm ill from anger and frustration--these things don't affect Migraine but do trigger Meniere's symptoms and my ears are already about to explode and my right Meniere's ear tinnitus is sounding like Chinese gongs. Woke up feeling not too terribly horrible. This will give me a chance to practice the energy balancing and crystal work I've been formulating to see how well they work for me when I'm under pressure. I have a goal to go back to school. I must get well enough to be able to do that. I will never be able to become a doctor myself if I cannot heal myself.

Of one thing you all may be certain; I'll be an expert in HIPPA regulations from the patient's side. If I can get well and get my PhD, nothing that has happened to me will never happen to any patient of mine.

See, I want to be a transpersonal depth psychologist. To try to "psychologize" me is the wrong approach. :)


On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Swine flu - some links and ideas

President Obama has declared a public health emergency for swine flu. Consider the emergency the way you'd think of a hurricane emergency, he says.

In United States, swine flu has now been conclusively identified in California, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, and New York. It's in Mexico City as well. This strain is a combination of bird, pig, and human flu strains.

The Sparkling One cannot watch television and has not in more than a year. Movement on the TV screen triggers vertigo; therefore, she will not have the opportunity to overreact to the 24/7 news shows.

Here are some links that might be handy sources of non-television information.

CDC Emergency Preparedness & Response Site

American Red Cross: Preparing and Getting Trained

Welcome to the White House - US and has a link to a swine flu information update widget on the blog. Scroll down just a tad and look on the left for the swine flu widget link. It's the green one on the left of this page if you don't want to clog your hard drive.


I'm not going to restate the official recommendations. The U. S. Government has been recommending preparedness for years. If you're not ready, what on EARTH are you waiting for?

These are some additional things that might help. The entire Sparkling Family is doing/does these things as regularly as we can:

* Moderation in all things, including moderation. Don't blow your energy body away by freaking over anything. I've done it by overreacting. Isn't worth the trouble it takes to rebuild it.

* Consider getting certified in first aid and CPR. The American Red Cross is ALWAYS my recommendation for getting this kind of training. I performed the Heimlich maneuver on a choking elderly woman in a restaurant in Meridian, Mississippi. You cannot imagine how it felt to hear her daughter say, "She's breathing! She's breathing!"

* Consider making up a batch of Honey Medicine if you've used up what you had. This is good for all viral issues and it just tastes good too.

* Get a nice, really clear, quarter-sized piece of tumbled clear quartz to keep in your pocket. Clear quartz has the folklore legend of being a "cure-all". Keeping it with you should help keep your overall body frequency a bit higher than normal. Average body frequencies run from 62-66 Hz. Edging towards 66 Hz is a good thing. Soap it up and rinse it off every time you wash your hands. If you have time, it'll get a good recharging if you can sit it in the sunshine for a couple of hours. They're quite inexpensive as well.

* For the sake of the rest of us, STAY HOME IF YOU'RE SICK WITH ANYTHING CONSIDERED "CATCHING". Please. Do I need to further explain this?

* Get a small bottle of hand sanitizer to keep in the glove box of your car and your purse as well. Think gasoline pump handles, store door handles, credit/debit card swipy things and the stylus--if you have hand sanitizer (or sanitizing wipes in a sealed container), you can wash up regularly. Those clear plastic bags that newspapers are in when they're home delivered make marvelous trash bags for cars and such. No crook is likely to break into your car to see what's inside it since it's clear and they'll see trash, no temptation to put off tossing it since it's so small it'll fill up rather quickly.

Honestly, influenza viruses are airborne for the most part. I had true flu once when I was in high school. Like to have died. It's like getting hit by a cannonball and never hearing the shot.

The Sparkling One cannot afford any more damage. She's going to do like she does for all the hurricanes that come this way and yes, we get them here in Alabama. Hurricane Katrina came through with sustained winds of 75 mph and we're 250 miles from the Gulf Coast.

Hurricanes we can deal with. We'll see how well we do with swine flu.




On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

"You has a hurt?...

Lolcats and funny pictures

I used to work for Internal Revenue Service, before I had to retire on disability.

I once dreamt that Congress had passed tax legislation to allow for deduction of expenses related to the upkeep of pets--dreamt what the form looked like and everything.

It was a Schedule A deduction, in my dream. It was only available to single people with no one else living in the house with them, and only one pet. It was a percentage deduction and included pet food expenses, veterinary bills, collars, beds, carriers--all sorts of things. Yeah, I dreamt all this.

I need some =^-^= therapy right now.

Iz ok. I fix ur hurtz.

On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Velvet Compassion and the Fortunate itzmeDebs

"When tears are in your eyes,
I will dry them all.
I'm on your side..."
Bridge Over Troubled Waters, written by Paul Simon


Short note before the storms get here and zap this self-contained human weather station...I'm going to indulge myself and I must get all my spoons used (.pdf) for indulgence and not stress and problem-solving and counseling and such. If you haven't yet explored But You Don't Look Sick, you must (link left too). Even if you're not chronically ill, you may know someone who is. At least read The Spoon Theory. We chronically ill folks mock the insensitive ones behind their backs if they should know better. If they merely don't understand, we point them to The Spoon Theory by Christine Miserandino who runs But You Don't Look Sick. They usually get it then.

We meet people along this road through life. If you're of the Christian belief system, you're already familiar with the straight and narrow road and the wide and easy way. We must all chose how we will deal with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that Shakespeare spoke of. Be under no illusion that all Christians chose the straight and narrow at all times. We all find ourselves off track. Life's a bitch, and then you die, right?

In fact there are people out in the world who already understand and "get it". Some people are caring and compassionate by nature, and I'm thinking of people who may be chronically ill themselves and people who may not be.

A soft thank you to two people (who know who they are) who have sweetly added their brushstrokes to the canvas of my little kindergarten art life. They didn't know at the time how important their help has been, but their brushstrokes were wide, sweeping, and flawlessly placed.

Never, and I mean never underestimate the effect you'll have on the people you meet on the road of life. Maybe they'll recognize and thank you. Maybe not, but that's ok too.

Two asterated rose quartzes transiting into my stellar sphere. How fortunate for me! :D






On Twitter--Parin Stormlaughter

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.